Before Hurricane Irma hit Florida, people throughout the state started preparing their homes and yards for the incoming storm.
Even those who weren’t in evacuation zones were aware that they needed to clear their yards of trash, board up their windows, and prepare their homes for flooding and rain.
A woman saw a skinny white puppy across the street and started preparing her yard. The dog responded to her call by running straight over to her house and onto her porch.
The woman posted the dog’s tale on Imgur, where she moved the hearts of thousands of viewers. She penned:
I saw this sweetheart across the street when I was outside preparing our yard for huge Irma badness here in central Florida. She approached slowly after I called to her as I would any dog.
even crossed the street after looking both ways. She is a smarty pants.
She allowed me to pet her a little, but when I made loud noises or moved too quickly, she showed signs of anxiety.
I went inside to get her some water and a bowl of dog food.
With such passion, she devoured it. Before taking a breath, she consumed three bowls of food and two cups of water.
She anxiously awaited my return each time I walked back inside the house.
She got pretty snuggly after being fed. As fas as even putting her paw on my arm and dragging it back to her chest whenever I paused for a moment.
Look at that smile. I knew I couldn’t leave her outside with the storm coming so I held the door open and asked if she wanted to come in.
She hesitated for just a second and then trotted inside to meet my doggo and two cats.
That’s when I really got a good look at her. She was filthy and smelled to high heaven.
Almost every bit of her fur was matted with dirt or feces. She wouldn’t let me touch her ears but I could see massive matts behind them that had to be so painful too.
She was really wary of me touching that side of her body, and I even found out that she had once sat in tar.
I got her calmed down and just sat on the bathroom floor with her for ages. She finally let me check her ears and feet.
I didn’t notice until then that her paws were bleeding. (She’d left bloody paw prints in the living room for me to find later.)
So I attempted a first bath. It didn’t go so well. She was a nervous wreck. She trusted me enough to pick her up and put her in the tub but as soon as the water came on she barked and cried.
Only managed to clean the top of her back before we both needed a break. So she came and sat on the couch with my doggo Arthur.
He didn’t take his eyes off her for the longest time but eventually they snuggled together to nap.
The look on her face when I said it was time for another attempt at a bath. This time I took the hair clippers to her first. She hated the noise but allowed me to cut away most of the matts.
I still couldn’t go anywhere near her ears though even with just scissors. It took four hours of cutting and scrubbing. To get her to a reasonable state.
It was quite challenging to remove the dried tar from her behind. Before it was all said and done, I had to shave off a lot of her fur.
Here she is fresh from the bath enjoying a little more food. I hated that I had to shave her tail too because the fur was so long but there was no way to save it.
First run through the backyard. She was so excited she took off and circled our shed before running back to me like she wanted to make sure I was still there. She even brought me sticks she found and wanted to take back inside.
I got her to a vet yesterday afternoon. She has no chip. They said she’s probably a husky/wolf mix. And that she’s very young. Maybe even less than a year old.
She’s obviously been on her own for a long while though.
She’s a snuggler. Pretty much anytime I sit down she wants to be in my lap. And she howls outside the bathroom door while waiting for me. We managed to hold her long enough to chip behind her ears finally.
Once she realized we were helping not hurting she stopped fighting us. It must have felt so good to have those matts released from her pulling her skin.
One individual I tracked down claimed she had formerly been her boyfriend’s dog. They let her out of the truck on the side of the road after learning that her partner was unable to retain her. 30 days. in an additional city. That really made me sad.
After much deliberation and several offers from dog lovers here in town we decided to keep her!! She is just so loving and grateful. She makes a perfect addition to our family.
The look on her face the first time I called her name. We named her Amaterasu or Amy for short. She’s already responding to Amy like she was born to it.
After her first post, Amy’s new owner shared an update on Imgur, writing:
She has some serious separation anxiety and must always be touching someone. We’ve gotten her crate trained for when we leave the house but she starts to howl as soon as we come back in, eager to be loved.
She and Arthur are buddies. She likes to snuggle up to him when she isn’t trying to gnaw a leg off in an attempt to get him to play with her.
We are so grateful! After our last post several people donated their hard earned money to help us get started and every little bit has helped. One user even mailed us a care package from Amazon with a giant bag of dog food and chew toys!!!
And all the messages! I sat and read through all 1200+comments on the original post and the flood of PMs. It just warms my heart to see so many people love Amy too.
